3.6 European Council

The main features of the European Council are:

The "European Council" is the name given to the regular meetings (also known as "summits") of the Heads of State and Government of the member states, Foreign Ministers and the President of the European Commission. It is not, strictly, an institution of the EU.
These "summits" are not formal EU institutions but have become central to the EU and involve guidance and strategic direction, and decision-taking. The decisions of the European Council are usually expressed as Conclusions, Resolutions or Declarations. Whilst they have no status in law, they create a framework for Community legislation.
Decisions are made by unanimity.
The European Council works alongside the Council of the European Union and is run by the country holding the presidency of the Council of the EU. They operate on a 6-month rotating basis. The President of the assembled European Council is performed by the Head of Government or Head of State of the member state holding the presidency of the Council of the EU.
The summit meetings mainly occur in practice twice every 6 months, with the more important meetings tending to be at the end of a member state's Presidency in either June or December.
The European Council is not to be confused with the Council of the European Union or the non-EU Council of Europe.

Some key dates are:

December 1974: it was agreed to have these regular summits (at least three times a year), starting in Dublin in March 1975.
December 1985: it was agreed to have only two summits a year (though the practice has been to be two each 6 months). In the 1986 SEA, the frequency of the meetings was laid down as "at least twice a year" (including meetings at the end of member states' presidencies) and the list of those entitled to attend was extended to include the foreign ministers and an additional Commissioner.
The summits used to be located in the member state holding the Presidency of the Council of European Union. Under the Treaty of Nice (2001), it was agreed that, from the accession of the 18^th member state, met by the enlargement of 2004, all European Council meetings would be held in Brussels. In practice, the first such meeting was held in Brussels in December 2003, during the Italian Presidency. The last of the European Councils (excluding informal, interim meetings) was held at Thessaloniki in June 2003.

RL, February 2007